‘PlantBottling’ a winner
Another remarkable success story is Heinz’s unprecedented strategic partnership with the Coca-Cola Co. and its PlantBottle™ technology. It’s yet another unique facet for this sustainability-conscious food packager to effectively leverage existing technology in a win-win arrangement.
Made from up to 30% renewable sugar cane material, the PlantBottle looks, feels and functions just like traditional PET plastic and is 100% recyclable. The PlantBottle runs exactly the same way in production and has the exact same shelf life as standard PET bottles.
“Absolutely no difference,” emphasizes Okoroafor, who possesses a doctorate in polymer science. From a technical standpoint, the 30% renewable content in PlantBottle is monoethylene glycol, the same material derived from petroleum sources.
Currently, all Heinz 20oz ketchup bottles are made from PlantBottle packaging. It’s the biggest change to Heinz’s iconic ketchup bottles since plastic bottles were introduced in 1983.
Okoroafor had been part of the team that developed the PlantBottle at Coca-Cola Co. “Because the companies complement one another in several ways and have a long history of shared values, it was easy for us to work together,” says Okoroafor.
The company is collaborating with Coca-Cola Co. towards reaching 100% renewable content. “The other 70% is very challenging,” Okoroafor says. “You’re going to be hearing more from this partnership.”
It also exemplifies an approach Okoroafor defines as “leveraging ourself into prosperity, not inventing ourself into prosperity. Inventing a molecule that would substitute for PET is not our core competency. What we do best is meet consumer needs. That’s why people and companies like to grow with us.”
Heinz will produce 120 million PlantBottle packages in 2011.
This wasn’t Heinz’s first foray into a renewable platform. About six months before the PlantBottle partnership, it debuted Simply Heinz brand foodservice condiment packets that use 30% renewable materials as its launch into renewable packaging.
Even the standard PET bottle has been slimmed: The current Heinz ketchup bottle uses 20% less polymer than five years ago, according to Okoroafor. “We have constantly lightweighted to where it is very efficient.”
The company is also using recycled content into its packaging, which Okoroafor consider as very important and fits into the 4 Rs of Heinz sustainability: Reuse; reduce; recycle; renewable. “Depending on which product we’re delivering, we leverage some or all of these pillars,” he explains.
To what does Heinz attribute its successful track record?
“To grow, innovation must be sustainable in terms of new product success rates,” offers Matthews. “We leverage consumer insights at every step in the process. This ensures our investment in new products will pay out and generate an ongoing return.”
And that won’t stop, even against the backdrop of a sputtering economy where other companies have entrenched. “One thing I can tell you is that we haven’t stopped investing in packaging,” shares Okoroafor.
Managers seem to have taken the company Founder’s advice a step further by “doing an uncommon thing uncommonly well” with some frequency. And that means that all the competition can do is try to play catch up.
